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Stoffel tops the time sheets in GP2 test

Posted on Thursday, 07 Nov 2013 17:34 (GMT)

Ask any racing driver and they’ll tell you it’s not easy to jump from one single-seater category to the next – cars are mechanically and aerodynamically different, engines get more powerful, tyres (and tyre manufacturers) supply rubber that behaves in fundamentally different ways.

By no means does success in one category guarantee you success in the next.

For McLaren Young Driver Stoffel Vandoorne, simply pitching up at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit for his first-ever taste of GP2 ought to have been a low-key, exploratory affair – particularly as it’s become a category where more experienced drivers tend to prevail over rookies.

To go out and utterly dominate the test, top the timesheets in both the final morning and afternoon sessions, and smash the pole position time set during last weekend’s grand prix support race would have been scintillating, brilliant stuff.

Yet that’s exactly what Stoffel did.

More than four tenths clear of his closest rival in Thursday morning’s session, Stoffel proceeded to destroy Alexander Rossi’s 1m48.931s pole time to set a new GP2 standard of 1m48.657s.